There has been so far a refrigeration apparatus including a heat source unit, a utilization unit and a refrigerant channel switching unit that is disposed between the heat source unit and the utilization unit and is configured and arranged to switch flow of refrigerant. For example, an air conditioning system disclosed in Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2008-39276 includes a heat source unit, a plurality of utilization units and a plurality of refrigerant channel switching units.
Now, FIG. 1 schematically shows a refrigerant circuit of a refrigerant channel switching unit 1 that is an example of a conventional refrigerant channel switching unit. The refrigerant channel switching unit 1 includes a switch valve 4 and a switch valve 5 connected to a refrigerant pipe 3 extending to a utilization unit 2. The switch valves 4 and 5 are provided for switching the flow of the refrigerant. In general, not electro-magnetic valves but electric valves are employed as the switch valves 4 and 5 in order to inhibit refrigerant running sound.